1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to detergent compositions containing acylcyanamide salts, useful for cleaning solid materials, particularly fabrics.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
The development of modern fabric detergents, which began in the thirties, had resulted by 1960 in an almost complete departure from the hitherto widely used detergents based on soap, soda and silicate. In their place came products which contained
(a) synthetic anionic and nonionic surfactants, PA1 (b) builders, particularly pentasodium triphosphate, and PA1 (c) redeposition inhibitors, generally carboxymethyl cellulose, which improved soil suspending power. Soap was only added to a minimal extent as a foam regulator. Without any deterioration in the primary washing effect, these modern detergents produced a significant improvement in the secondary washing effect by comparison with older detergents, as reflected in particular in a reduction in the level of incrustation on the fabrics.
Despite the high quality of fabric treatment achieved with these detergents, attempts were made and are still being made to obtain further improvements in the quality of detergents and to adapt them to changing circumstances. Similar efforts are being made throughout the entire field of detergents and cleaners. Examples of improvements of the type in question are the change from substantially nonbiodegradable to rapidly degradable surfactants and the replacement of the soluble builder phosphates by insoluble sodium aluminium silicates of the zeolite A type.